Indices snap 4-day losing run; Sensex up 166 points; small-caps outperform
Equity markets snapped their four-day losing run and ended near day’s high on Friday as gains in pharma and banking counters, and select heavyweights lent support to the indices. Breaking away from a lackluster trade, the frontline indices picked pace in the second half of the session as ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, SBI, and HDFC gained between 0.7 per cent and 1.6 per cent.
The S&P BSE Sensex closed with gains of 166 points, or 0.32 per cent, at 52,485 levels while the NSE’s Nifty50 settled at 15,722 levels, up 42 points or 0.27 per cent.
However, trading action was skewed towards small-cap stocks as hefty buying in Mangalam Cement, Omaxe, OnMobile Global, Route Mobile, and Indoco Remedies, pushed the BSE SmallCap index up 1 per cent. Gains in mid-cap index remained capped amid sell-off in Adani Transmission, Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, JSW Energy, SAIL, and Vodafone Idea. The BSE MidCap index ended little changed.
Sectorally, the Nifty Pharma index was the top gainer, up 0.6 per cent, followed by the Nifty Bank index, up 0.4 per cent. Conversely, the Nifty Metal index was the top sectoral loser on the NSE, down 1.5 per cent.
Shares of Alicon Castalloy were locked in the 20 per cent upper circuit band, at Rs 761.75, on the BSE on Friday, having zoomed 30 per cent in two trading days, after the company said mutual funds bought nearly 10 per cent stake in the auto parts & equipment firm in qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue.
Route Mobile surges 10% on acquisition of email technology biz from Sarv. The upfront purchase consideration of Rs 26.25 crore shall be paid upon closing of the acquisition, in cash. A deferred consideration of Rs 4 crore shall be paid, on the first anniversary of the closing of the acquisition, in cash, the company said.
Shares of Nucleus Software Exports hit an all-time high of Rs 765.35 after rallying 9 per cent on the BSE in intra-day deal on Friday in an otherwise range-bound market on the back of heavy volumes. The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 765.35, touched on October 7, 2020. The trading volumes on the counter jumped nearly three-fold with a combined 933,000 shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.07 per cent at 52,284 points, at 10:04 am.
Shares of Aurobindo Pharma gained 4 per cent to Rs 1,003.75 on the BSE in the intra-day deal on Friday after the drug firm announced transfer of business undertaking comprised in Unit·4, on a going concern basis, to Eugia Pharma Specialities, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. The transfer of the business undertaking will be done for a lumpsum consideration of Rs 876 crore.
Affle India freezes at 5% upper circuit on acquisition of Jampp. Affle (India) said it has completed the acquisition of Jampp, a global programmatic mobile marketing company. In June, Affle had announced the acquisition of Jampp (Ireland) Ltd and its subsidiaries.
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